Undue Imitation
An increasing number of Chinese and Southeast Asian broadcasting companies are imitating Korean programs to take advantage of popular TV dramas and variety shows from Korea. Nevertheless, not only production companies but also the Korean government are sitting on their hands in spite of the blatant plagiarism of the program formats and copyright infringement, due to the lack of applicable protection measures.
A broadcasting program format is defined as the key elements, storylines, styles and the like constituting each episode. That of the Golden Bell Challenge of KBS was exported to Vietnam in 2003 and those of “Immortal Masterpiece” of KBS, “Where Are You Going, Daddy” of MBC, and SBS's “K-Pop Star” were exported to China last year.
The problem is that more and more broadcasting formats from Korea are copied without appropriate contracts. One example is Hunan TV’s program titled “Divas Hit the Road,” which has been aired since April. The program is characterized by five actresses and two male celebrities backpacking abroad, which is very similar to the program “Noona over Flowers” of CJ E&M.
In addition, a TV drama similar to “The Man from the Stars” of SBS has recently been broadcast in Indonesia without any prior agreements. Also, a movie combining elements from “The Man from the Stars” and “The Inheritors” is being filmed in China by the title of “Inheritors from the Stars.”
“At present, what we can do against such program format copyright infringement is just limited to sending an official notice,” said a local program provider, continuing, “Broadcasting program formats are unlikely to be protected even, in such a case, because countries have different copyright laws.”
“The increasing plagiarism and copyright infringement can be attributed to the Chinese and Southeast Asian governments’ recent regulatory measures for the protection of their own cultural content, including the restrictions on overseas TV drama airing times and the number of imported formats, and the subsequent production of programs not through format contracts,” another provider commented, adding, “The Korean government needs to pay attention to this issue if it is to continue the Korean Wave.”